Hey everyone,
I’m Arnaud Jardin, co-founder and CEO of Photonomie. We’re so thrilled to be on Product Hunt today ! Thank you Ben and Eric for hunting us.
We developed this immersive technology because sharing static photos has become too frustrating. Virtual reality is now a trending topic and everyone expects to move into the pictures. 360 apps have been available for years, but they are still slow to process and the user experience is dissuasive in many situations.
Photonomie uses the iPhone video stream to be intuitive and quick. You just have to turn around and "paint" your environment, up and down, with the angle you want. You can share it right away in text messages, e-mails, social media. Even if your contacts don’t have the app (thanks to the WebGL integration) they are able to open it and feel like they were there.
Our technology is the result of more than a year of research and development in Paris. The app engine has been inspired by the SLAM type of algorithm embedded in “Opportunity” - you know, one of the Mars Exploration Rover robots - in order to bring the real time stitching technology to iOS devices (Android guys, we are working on it, we promise). By the way, the app is free !
Looking forward to answering your questions with Pierre Dulac, our smiling CTO.
Arnaud

I haven't had a chance to try out the app but viewing the sample, it was pretty nice, lightweight and smooth viewing experience. Reminds me of Android Photosphere except this feels like a much easier way to take those photos instead of spot-clicking all around yourself. Looking forward to trying it out in some time!

@sarthakgrover Thanks! Indeed we tried to first imagine the best user experience, and then found a technical way to do it. Because in the end, all that matters is the experience and not the beauty of the algorithm behind it :) even if I do think the algorithm is beautiful...
So maybe reversing the thinking logic like this helped us make a product really different from Google Photo sphere (or Google Streetview now), I like to think so.